Roleplay Guide

Getting Started

The following guide is required knowledge for participation as a youth character and violations of these rules and guidelines could lead to losing your right to play an underage character or even being banned from the sims. It’s a fairly quick read and will help you get started in the unpredictable and exciting world of role-play in Seaside and all of Crack Den with your underage character.

If you have any questions about this guide, IM author Nadir Taov.

Hathian Sim – Zone Restrictions for Child Avatars (red = not allowed):

What is Role-Play?

Role-play (RP) is a social activity in which players assume roles of their own fictional characters and interact with one another.  There are community rules and the city background to consider while participating (read Welcome Rules note + info below!).

IN-CHARACTER (IC) vs. OUT-OF-CHARACTER (OOC)

This is the most important concept to understand for role-play:

IN-CHARACTER (IC) describes the state of acting through the eyes, ears, and body of your fictional character. Basically, all physical actions and conversations would be based as if you are really the character, through the emoting and writing guidelines detailed below.

OUT-OF-CHARACTER (OOC) describes responses and interactions with others as your real-self, in out-of-story context. Basically, being OOC means you are not role-playing and are restricted to communicating in IMs and group chats. If you need to break character temporarily, you may do so by surrounding your text in brackets, for example: (( I need to use the restroom, I’ll brb ))

EMOTE / COMMUNICATION

To communicate and interact with other players in role-play, you should emote. In Second Life, this means to use the /me command as you portray yourself in the third person, followed by the physical actions, thoughts, feelings, and/or speech (in quotations) of your character.  The following examples are responses you could type if you were playing this child character:

Example:

/me sits upright when the teacher suddenly calls on her. Unsure of the answer, she stutters, “Oh, umm … sorry, I didn’t read the book!”

Remember, gestures and chat abbreviations (ie. lol, omg, etc.) are not allowed in role-play. If you have gestures activated for common words, please remember to deactivate them!

Always emote and be descriptive in your posts.

ACT YOUR AGE  – Age Guidelines & Rules

Regardless of your character’s age, we are still adults playing Second Life. As such, everyone is supposed to act like adults out-of-character, use common sense, and act their age appropriately when in-character. We have different categories depending on the age; each may or may not have specific rules, but you must be aware of them all.

All ages:

  • No sexual role-play (ageplay) is allowed, regardless of age, when minors are involved in a scene.
  • No overly sexual/suggestive gestures or contact. This includes, but is not limited to kissing, groping, sexual propositions, etc.
  • No nudity in scenes where minors are involved.
  • No graphic violence allowed.
  • Murder (including accidental) of a minor (that is played by another player) is not allowed by neither adult nor another minor.

Ages 9 & Under:

  • Kids should be accompanied by an adult or guardian (can be older teens).
  • Weapons limited to Hand & small objects i.e. rocks, sticks, boards (nothing pointy!)
  • Kids should NOT be involved in any physical altercation with adults. Physical harm received from adults or other youth should be slight, involving no weapons and not leave any marks or scars.

Ages 10 -13:

  • No need for supervision once this age group has been reached.
  • Weapons limited to blunt objects (bats, crowbars, brass knucks) and the above. Nothing with a blade.
  • Reasonable crimes committed by this age group surround misdemeanors like pick pocketing, shoplifting, vandalism and fights amongst themselves.
  • Physical harm is not rare amongst rascals of this age. Harm caused by adults or other kids should not be extreme. Marking, scarring and/or bruising by hand and blunt objects only.

Ages 14-17:

  • Weapons limited to Small knives & all aforementioned items.
  • As said in the other guide behavior varies widely and thus so will crimes committed and the physical harm that is inflicted and/or received.
  • Physical harm outlined in above sections within player limits allowed. Injuries resulting in scars, shallow cuts, marks, bruising, etc allowed.
  • Fights allowed between youth and by adults (no weapons) as long injuries that result are not too severe

TAKING TURNS

Role-play is a turn-based activity. When someone posts, you should respond with a single post, then wait for your turn to respond again.

If there are multiple players involved, take your turn in order. This allows everyone a fair chance to respond to a situation before it is your turn to post again. Keep in mind that scenes at busy locations such as restaurants and bars may have a more lax posting order to allow workers to better serve and private conversations to ensue.

PLAY FAIR – POWERGAMING AND METAGMING

As emphasized above, role-play is consensual. If your character is interacting physically with another, every action you post must always be an attempt, or what you are trying to do to the other player. This gives the other player flexibility and chances to either accept or deflect what you are trying to do to them. Combat and forced fantasy scenes are especially handled this way.

POWERGAMING

If one attacks without any social interaction, use excessive force, or post the result of an attack on another character, then they are powergaming. Besides losing respect from other players, if reported, the offenders may find themselves ejected from groups and banned.

Good Example:

/me snarls angrily, draws his pipe back, and then charges towards the hobo in hopes to strike him. “I’ll show you!” he screams.

Bad Example (Powergaming!):

/me snarls angrily, draws his pipe back and jumps on the hobo. He then swings his pipe at his head and knocks him out cold.

METAGAMING

Metagaming occurs when a player uses knowledge their character would not be privy to (It was obtained through OOC means) and uses it during in-character role-play to alter outcomes in a scene or storyline in their favor. A common example of this violation is to read an avatar name and use that name in-character to address someone. Unless your character actually met this other character or had knowledge of them through role-play, there is no possible way your character would have known their name (the same goes for character background, history, and any other life detail that has not been role-played out).

CREATING YOUR CHARACTER

Establishing a backstory is the foundation to your character’s appearance, mindset, and history. Think about where he/she grew up or major events that help define character, and the events that lead to their arrival to the school. Create a profile pick of Seaside and put a summary of your character’s backstory in the description.

GET INVOLVED ONLINE!

Seaside has an extensive online community! Get your character a blog to extend and showcase character developments, discuss issues and ideas on forums, read or write for the newspaper, and much more!